{"id":964607,"date":"2026-11-14T21:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T21:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/964607\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T21:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T21:22:16","slug":"photographer-on-his-award-winning-image-shot-during-brutal-rain-at-2am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/964607\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer on his award-winning image shot during “brutal” rain at 2am"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Professional<\/p>\n

Credit: Lear Miller \/ The Illume<\/p>\n

“It was an extremely difficult shoot, logistically and condition-wise,” said Lear Miller, speaking to the Illume Awards \u2013 a major outdoor and adventure photography contest, which recently named the US photographer winner of the 2026 Bike category.<\/p>\n

Miller<\/a> captured his winning image of professional mountain biker Hannah Bergemann riding through a fluorescent-lit forest during filming for <\/a>Mountains of the Moon<\/a>, a surreal nighttime action sports film.<\/p>\n

“We’d been up all day, and the photo probably happened around 2am,” said Miller, adding that the temperature had dropped to around 40\u00b0F \/ 4\u00b0C, made worse by heavy rain.<\/p>\n

“The riders were riding in the dark while we constantly battled water on the lenses and gear,” said the photographer. “My viewfinder had completely fogged up. I was constantly cleaning the lens and holding the camera under my rain jacket until the riders came.”<\/p>\n

\"Professional<\/p>\n

Professional mountain biker Hannah Bergemann flies off a jump below the “Tree Of Life” during filming for the surreal nighttime sports film Mountains of the Moon | Credit: Lear Miller \/ The Illume<\/p>\n

Lear Miller’s gear and settings<\/p>\n

And when the riders were in frame, it wasn’t any easier for them. Miller had set up to capture Bergemann flying off a jump built under a tree nicknamed the ‘Tree of Life’. But the run-up to that jump was “a greasy, wet mud spot, so the athletes really struggled to make it look good,” the photographer explained.<\/p>\n

However, despite what Miller called some “pretty brutal” conditions, he came away stoked, knowing that his now-winning frame had brought everything together during that “moment of chaos”.<\/p>\n

As the winner of the Bike category at this year’s Illume Awards, Miller received a suite of prizes, including a Leica D-Lux 8<\/a> camera. His winning photograph will also be published in The Illume Photobook 2026. Head to the 2026 gallery<\/a> on the Illume Awards website to see all of this year’s commended images.<\/p>\n

You might also like\u2026<\/p>\n

Here’s our expert pick of the best cameras for sports photography<\/a> as well as a dedicated review of the Canon EOS R5 II<\/a>, the rig trusted by Lear Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-964607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}